13th Annual Men of Color Conference

The 13th Annual Men of Color Conference is a 3-day conference that takes place in Rome, NY on the weekend of January 29th -31st. The conference is filled with a series of workshops, seminars, and speakers focused on character and professional development among minority men at Cornell, Ithaca College, Tompkins Cortland Community College, and Ithaca High School. This year's theme is C.E.O : New Age Professionalism, with C.E.O. standing for Chasing Everyday Opportunities. With this theme, MOCC strives to help young men polish their soft and technical skills in order to make them better candidates, and smoothly pursue their career goals, no matter the industry or academic field. Through this supportive and cohesive network of young professionals, this conference works towards cultivating the entrepreneurial spirit among all of its participants and pushing them to plan, organize, and execute their projects and ventures together within the wider Ithaca community. With these workshops and projects, the participants will develop leadership skills necessary to positively contribute to the community while preparing themselves to accomplish their short and long-term goals by learning techniques that will make their work much more efficient. There will also be corporate sponsors from fortune 500 companies that will inform the participants of the many opportunities available to apply for and increase their experience.

By bringing these gentlemen together, MOCC will use this network to establish partners to start a college-prep program at Ithaca High School and a Professional Clothing Rental program at Cornell. With the college-prep program, MOCC will work towards helping high school students improve their leadership skills, such as public speaking and project management, while also providing SAT tips and essay writing advice in order to become more qualified college applicants. This college-prep program is designed to take place at Ithaca High School on a monthly basis. In addition, the Professional Clothing Program is designed to provide collegiate men with professional apparel for events such as conferences, networking sessions, interviews, and etc. Many times, individuals from lower socio-economic backgrounds do not pursue particular professional and career-oriented functions because they do no have the attire necessary to fit the dress code. Therefore, this program aims to eliminate this barrier and provide the attire for these young men at no cost.